Secondary electric clock.



No. 800,286. PATENTED SEPT. 26, 1905. R. J. FLINT.

SECONDARY ELECTRIC CLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.11. 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

)5 oerfJTZint.

@ W @QRW No. 800,286. PATBNTED SEPT. 26, 1 905.

- R. J. FLINT.

SECONDARY ELECTRIC CLOCK.

APPLIUATION FILED IAB. 11. 1905.

2 SHEEfiPS-BHEET Z.

/ In Deni/0r 6i JFZZ ni'.

f7 fiz's cuffvrney.

UNITED PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT J. FLINT, OF DECATUR, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO FRANK CURTIS COMPANY, OF DECA'UR, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

SECONDARY ELECTRIC CLOCKn Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 26, 1905.

Application filed March 1T, 1905. Serial No. 249,653.

To all whom it may cancer-'12 Be it known that I, ROBERT J. FLINT, of the city of Decatur, county of Macon, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Secondary Electric Clocks, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide simple means for accurately advancing the hands of a secondary electric clock.

The invention is exemplified in the structure hereinafter described, and it is defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is an elevation of the rear face of the frame of a clock embodying my invention, the rear plate of the frame being broken away to expose essential details. Figs. 2, 3,4, and 5 are details, on an enlarged scale, of the operative parts of the clock to which my invention refers, each figure being a front elevation.

The ratchet-wheel through which hands a and 6 are moved is shown at 1, and at 2 are shown pins projecting laterally from the perimeter of the wheel and constituting the teeth thereof. There are sixty pins on the ratchetwheel, one for each minute in an hour, and motion is imparted from the shaft of the ratchet-wheel directly to the minute-hand of theclock. The hour-hand is moved from the shaft of the ratchet-wheel through the customary train of gear-wheels, the construction of which is too well understood to require illustration or explanation.

An electromagnet is shown at 3. The cores of the magnet are shown at 5, and at 1 are shown wires of a circuit which includes a generator and is controlled by a master-clock.

The armature 6 is fixed on rock-shaft 7, with its ends adjacent to the cores of the magnet. The shaft of the armature and the shaft of the ratchet-wheel are journaled in plates 8 and 9 of the clock-frame.

An arm 11 is fastened onto the shaft 7, and it is rocked in one direction by the magnet and in the other direction by mechanical means. In this instance a spring 12 is used to impart motion to the rock-arm in one direction. A shuttleframe 13 is carried on the rocking end of arm 11, and as the arm is rocked back and forth the shuttle moves crosswise of the path of motion of the ratchet-pins 2. The shuttle-frame comprises the areformed bar 13, the end pieces 14, and the short side pieces 15. The shuttle is approximately as wide as the spaces between pins of the ratchet-wheel, and the side pieces combine with the bar 13 to form housings for the pivotal ends of a cam-pawl 17 and a guidefinger 22, the operative parts of which are exposed between end pieces 15. The campawl 17 is pivoted on pin 18, and it has an extension 19, against which spring 20 bears.

A shoulder 21 of the cam-pawl strikes against a bearingsurface 16 to limit the upward swing of the point of the pawl. (See Fig. 3,

where side pieces are broken away.) The guide-finger 22 is pivoted on pin 23, and it has an extension 2A, against which spring 25 bears. Screws 26 and 27 hold the springs and in place. The springs tend to force the swinging ends of the pawl and the linger upward and hold them yieldingly in the positions shown inall the figures except Fig. 3.

hen the pawl is forced downward, as shown in Fig. 3, the pawl and the linger occupy no more space vertically than the bar 13 of the shuttle-frame. hen the shuttle is at rest,

as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, an end of the shuttle-frame occupies a space between two teeth of the ratchet-wheel and effectually holds the wheel from moving in either direction. WVhen the magnet is energized by action of the master-clock, the shuttle moves in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 3, where motion derived from the magnet is shown almost completed, and the pawl 17 is forced downward to pass under the pin immediately above the shuttle. As the armature lines up between the cores of the magnet the shuttle assumes the position shown in Fig. 4, or approximately so, and the free end of the cam-pawl rises preparatory to engaging a pin of the ratchetwheel. As soon as the circuit is broken the spring 12 or its equivalent moves the shuttle in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 5, and the linger yields downward to permit passage of the pin that the cam-pawl is advancing by inclined -plane action. Each back-and-forth movement of the shuttle advances the ratchet-wheel one tooth, and it is physically impossible for this action to vary or fail. As soon as the pawl engages a pin it interposes itself as a barrier to the tooth next following. The linger extends above the lower teeth before the upper tooth or pin begins to depress the pawl in the back action of the shuttle, and the shuttle is interposed between pins at the ends of its movements.

I claim 1. In a secondary clock, the combination of a ratchet-wheel having laterallyprojeeting pins, a shuttle-frame having a path of motion crosswise of the path of motion of the pins, a cam-pawl on the shuttle presenting an inclined surface to the ratchet-pins, and a yielding finger on the shuttle beneath the pawl and presented in the opposite direction, substantially as described.

2. In a secondary electric clock, the combination of a ratchet-wheel having pins projecting laterally, a shuttle-frame having a path of motion crosswise of the path of motion of the pins, a cam-pawl on the shuttle presenting an inclined surface to the ratchet-pins, a spring tending to hold the point of thepawl above the shuttle-frame, a finger on the shuttie-frame beneath the pawl and presented in a direction contrary thereto and a spring tending to hold the point of the finger against the pawl.

3. In a secondary electric clock, the combination of a ratchet-wheel having laterallyprojecting pins, an electromagnet, a rocking armature for the magnet, a shuttlelramc swung by the magnet with its path of travel crosswise of the path of travel of the pins, 0

mechanical means for returning the shuttle after an electrical impulse, a cam-pawl on the shuttle presentmg an inclined surface to the pins, a linger on the shuttle beneath the pawl 

